Abraham Wyszniak was born on the 6th August 1890 in Warsaw, Poland. His occupation was that of a diamond merchant. In 1912 he married Dvora (a dental student). They lived in Breslau from 1913-1918. They moved to Berlin in 1918 and remained there until 1933. They had three children – Gina, Sabine and Asta. From February until May 1933 he was frequently set upon at the Potsdamer Platz by the Nazis and beaten up – he lost his left eye as a result. He was imprisoned for a short period, but eventually released. In May 1933 he fled to Prague (he was only permitted to remain there for a short time), then onto Vienna, then Switzerland, Holland, Belgium, England and finally to Ireland, where he was allowed to remain. In the early 1960’s he emigrated to Israel and lived with his daughter Gina, and her husband Moshe, until his death in 1981.
Dvora Wyszniak was born on the 25th October 1892 in Serock, Poland. From 1918 onwards she lived in Berlin. In July 1933 she was forced to leave Berlin with her two children, Sabine and Asta. Her husband Abraham (see above), had already fled Belin a few weeks earlier. Since Dvora had remained a Polish citizen, she and two her children were permitted to live in Warsaw. When the Nazis marched into Poland in 1939, Dvora and Asta were evicted from their apartment in Warsaw and forced into the Ghetto. Dvora died in the Warsaw Ghetto in late 1941 or shortly afterwards. (We believe that she died either from starvation or was murdered).
Gina Wyszniak was born in Warsaw on the 24th June 1914. She, along with her parents and sisters, Gina moved to Berlin in 1918 where she remained until 1936. She became a member of the Zionist Movement in Berlin. Prior to leaving Berlin in 1936 she spent one year in Denmark where she studied farming. In September 1936, she emigrated to Palestine, where soon afterwards she married Moshe (Kurt) Klein. She remained in Israel until her death in February 2004. Moshe Klein passed away in July 2011.
Sabine Wyszniak was born on the 24th December 1916 in Warsaw, Poland. She lived in Berlin from 1918 – 1933. In July 1933 she fled with her mother and younger sister (Asta) to Poland, where she remained until 1938. During this period she mostly lived at different addresses in Warsaw. In 1938 Sabine managed to obtain a temporary visa from the British Consulate in Warsaw to go to Ireland. She departed the next day. However, on her way to Ireland she stopped off in Paris to visit her aunt and remained there for some time. She eventually arrived in Dublin in late 1938 where she was reunited with her father. After numerous attempts to extradite her back to Germany, she was permitted to remain. In Dublin, in December 1944 she married Montague Shorts. She had two sons, Ivor and Edwin. In 1987 she returned to Berlin for the first time since 1933 at the invitation of the Mayor of Berlin. She died in September 2001.
Asta Wyszniak was born on the 24th January 1922 in Berlin, Germany. She continually lived there until her forced departure in 1933 to Poland with her mother and sister, Sabine. We believe that she perished in the Warsaw Ghetto in or about 1941. However, there have been suggestions that she was separated from her mother in the Ghetto and taken to a concentration camp called Majdanek and eventually died there. (More research on Asta’s final fate is required and will be undertaken by myself in the very near future).
Englische Texte: Ivor Shorts, Übersetzungen: Martina Shorts
Siehe auch: www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/people/a-berlin-family-s-irish-refuge-1.2647069
